Pluses and Minuses of Common Core

It’s too bad that Rebekah and Kevin Nelams’s children will be limited by their parents’ misconceptions about mathematics and the Common Core standards. (And when did we go from parents providing time and space for kids to do homework to parents doing their kids’ homework with them?)

It’s also too bad that the standards got introduced in the No Child Left Behind era, so people are confusing the standards — a set of expectations of what students should know and be able to do — with the tests, which are indeed being implemented too quickly in some places, including New York.

As a mathematician who works with elementary-school teachers, I fully support the standards as a big improvement over what came before: the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards. I wish people would actually read the standards before rushing to judgment. Those “viral” postings and comedy routines that ridicule the standards are evidence that some adults are unwilling to back up their own conjectures with solid reasoning.

PRISCILLA BREMSER Middlebury, Vt., June 30, 2014

The writer is a professor of mathematics at Middlebury College.

To the Editor:

I’m a high school math teacher, and I find many of the latest “new ways” a waste of time and insulting to many if not most of the students.

The old algorithms, when taught well, are terrific gateways to deeper understanding and advanced coursework. Unfortunately, one of the obstacles to effective teaching is the never-ending parade of “new” ways, imposed by an endless stream of consultants and administrators who, unwittingly, validate the critics.

Someone profits from this politicization, but it’s not the students. As my old union president used to plead, just “let teachers teach!”

FRANK TRIPOLI Ipswich, Mass., June 30, 2014

To the Editor:

I am a fourth-grade teacher and have been teaching Common Core math for two years. I am enthusiastic about the results I’m seeing. Common Core asks students to do more than memorize the steps to solve calculation problems. They are asked to make sense of real-world problems and find their own solutions.

I am continually surprised by students’ ingenuity and ability to see multiple approaches to a problem. My students can do so much more mathematically than before we instituted Common Core. Parents need to let teachers do their jobs.

ANN PRIESTER TOWNE Kempton, Pa., June 30, 2014

To the Editor:

How many fingers do 23 students have? What is the total number of wheels in six cars? These questions shouldn’t be beyond the ability of the average second grader in America.

The Common Core math problems shown in your article seem familiar to me from my own kids’ elementary school and don’t seem unreasonable. There’s been no hue and cry at my own kids’ school over the new standards. I wonder if many people’s opposition to Common Core says more about their attitudes toward government standards in general than the actual curriculum.

YVETTE ALT MILLER Northbrook, Ill., June 30, 2014

To the Editor:

As a fifth-grade teacher with 22 years of experience, I readily concede that learning complex problem-solving skills is extremely important. However, before children can do that, they need to master basic arithmetic skills and be comfortable using numbers in a variety of ways. It is in elementary school that children learn these things.

The problems that are presented to these young children in the New York State Common Core math tests are developmentally inappropriate for most of them. Moreover, any children who are having difficulty reading are going to find these problems extremely frustrating.

It is not Common Core that is the problem here. Rather, it is the commercially developed math tests that New York State uses.

ROBERT GERHARDT Huntington Station, N.Y., June 30, 2014

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Pluses and Minuses of Common Core. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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